


never wanted to dance

by murderplot



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Awkward Romance, Eventual Romance, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, M/M, Mutual Pining, Partying, Smoking, Trans Character, please read the notes on the first chapter!!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2019-11-07 18:30:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17965820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murderplot/pseuds/murderplot
Summary: Maki wasn't a weak willed woman. Even though she was barely 22, she'd been through a lot, and that included working as an assassin through all of her teen years, though nowadays she was just a daycare worker. But even though she thinks as herself as a very headstrong person, she still gets roped up into fronting a band after her best friend has a terrible idea while drunk, all because of her stupid crush on Kaede Akamatsu





	1. track 1 - never wanted to dance

**Author's Note:**

> aight so before you read i have a couple warnings to give:  
> 1 - chapter titles will be in a playlist format. the songs might not be directly related to the chapter's content, but there will be a connection in one way or another. feel free to listen to them if you want to ;3  
> 2 - only major characters are tagged, most of v3's cast will appear at some point though  
> 3 - this fic may contain v3 spoilers and highly suggestive content at later chapters  
> that being said, i hope u enjoy this fic!  
> chapter song: never wanted to dance - mindless self indulgence

The last few slices of sunshine cut through an already rather dark sky, dyeing what was previously bright blue a murky sort of purple, and the constant rumble of the cars in the street echoed everywhere.

Long buildings extended themselves like children trying to poke the clouds, some of them with mirrorlike windows that reflected the last hints of sunlight. It could be a pretty sight, if you thought about it, but Maki didn’t really care about that.

Days at the daycare were always long and tiring. She could feel the weigh from the workload rest over her dark circles, covered up by a considerable amount of makeup she wore solely to look more “presentable” by society’s standards. Because that was a thing, unfortunately.

She parks her car in her usual spot, and gets out, closing the door with a rather loud noise. There wasn’t anyone but her there, and at each second that passed, the night inched closer.

Sighing exhaustedly, she leans up against a wall and rummages her purse for a cigarette. In days like these, it was one of the few ways she could feel slightly less stressed. The cigarette is lit, and she sucks in the poisonous smoke, filling up her lungs and feeling her mind starting to settle down in comfortable numbness.

Staring at the small cigarette inbetween her fingers, for some reason Maki’s first thought involves what Kaito Momota, her absolutely abhorrent coworker would always say when seeing her, a _“fragile young woman”_ left to her own devices in the darkness of the night, at a neighborhood known for not being the safest.

“So annoying” She thinks as she blows out the smoke. But as annoying as it was, she couldn’t blame Kaito (Not in this situation at least) for thinking she’d be easy prey or something along these lines. Because it wasn’t like he knew her upbringing.

22-year-old, daycare worker Maki Harukawa, was in fact, an ex-assassin. And a pretty good one at that, who got really far in the hierarchy of the organization she worked for, until they got discovered by the police, at least. She was one of the few assassins that weren’t arrested on sight, because her identity, luckily, was extremely well protected. Those were the perks of being good at her job, she guesses.

It’d been a whole year since the organization went to shit, and since then, she hasn’t really known what to do with her life. She got a new identity, moved across the country, got a new, mundane job, and the rest is history. History that just didn’t matter anymore.

Maki didn’t miss her old work in the slightest, but she had to admit, having a mundane life was boring. She’d been in that scene since way before she got adopted at 14, and had so much money saved up, there wasn’t really a reason for her to work, at least for a while.

Still, as much as she would never, under any circumstance, say it out loud, she actually liked working with children — Making sure they were well taken care of was something that warmed her heart, if only just a little.

There were few things like that in her life. The other main one was music, especially playing the guitar. Maki didn’t think of herself as a good musician, but to her, there was nothing better than getting her guitar and playing along to whatever.

It was a nice thing to do, and an “interesting” hobby, according to many acquaintances of hers. Somehow, she’s even made a friend because of it— Rantaro Amami, a “rich kid” her age who looked like a typical straight playboy but was actually gay, thankfully.

Rantaro was one of the guitarists that hung around Maki’s favorite live house, and actually had been a substitute for bands whose guitarist couldn’t come pretty often. Maki heard him play a variety of songs, and he was good. They met every now and then to hang out, sometimes he’d even come over to smoke weed and complain about life. It was nice, having a friend. Plus, she had an excuse to cook for someone.

The one thing about him that sort of got in her nerves was how he’d try to nag her to show off her music skills more. Since they would play together sometimes, Rantaro often joked about them making a band or something like that, and as much as Maki knew it was just a joke, she was sure she’d never, absolutely, under any circumstance, do something like that.

You see, someone like Rantaro was the kinda person  you’d expect to see in a band, probably as the lead guitarist pulling off some crazy solos, catching the eyes of everyone in the audience.

Playing for an audience required charisma, and loads of musical talent to make them enjoy it, both of which Maki lacked. Maki was just a hobbyist, who enjoyed playing some trashy stuff in the comfort of her own home. Not in a stage, not in front of people she didn’t know.

Maki Harukawa might not be too sure of what to do with her life, yes but she knew very well she would never be in a band, would never play to an audience, and that was it.

.           .           .

The way that Monday started was alright. Maki rolled out of bed, showered, put on makeup and hair extensions and some clothing and whatever. She had a light breakfast and quickly ran up to her car to drive to the daycare, ready for another day of work.

Even though it was a Monday, Maki was in a pretty good mood. The weekend had been fun, she got to see some bands playing with Rantaro and listen to him talk shit over some drinks at her apartment.

She may have exaggerated on the alcohol that night, yes, since she didn’t even remember how their conversation went, but that didn’t matter, really.

Parking her car near the daycare, she stops to fix her bangs for a bit, and then enters the place, ready for yet another day of work.

And work really is the same as always. Kids screaming and running everywhere, and her having to keep them under control at all times. It was exhausting, sometimes annoying and ridiculous, but at the end, she felt rewarded when seeing the kids smile as they play.

Maki knew at least one of them might not have the best home life, so she always wanted to make sure that their time at the daycare made up for it.

At the end of the afternoon, parents come to pick up their children, and that’s how things get the slightest more exciting — Maki isn’t on overly friendly terms with any parents, you know, but the chance that a certain person might come over always made her heart jump.

That someone was Kaede Akamatsu.

She wasn’t actually one of the parents, but she did pick up her niece to help out her sister sometimes. She was around Maki’s age, maybe a year or two older, and a rather well known professional pianist.

But besides that, Kaede was also one of the sweetest, most genuine people Maki had ever met, and so, so _beautiful._ She had long golden hair and the prettiest soft violet eyes and a smile that could light up the entire room—

Needless to say, Maki liked her…a whole lot. Maybe too much, because Kaede was obviously way out of her league. There was no way such an angelic, sunshiney person would want to be with expressionless, grumpy Maki Harukawa.

Still, that didn’t mean she avoided her. In fact, they would always chat when Kaede came to pick up little Aika. And much to Maki’s luck, today was one of these days.

“Oh, hey, Maki! Good afternoon!” Kaede’s soft, melodic voice caught her attention when she was just gone talking to a parent, and Maki almost feels her heart soar.

“Ah, hi” She takes a step on her direction, feeling warmth come over her cheeks just a little bit “Did you come to pick up Aika?”

“Yeah, I did” Is Kaede’s cheerful reply. It’s almost a bit too bubbly, and it sets off the tiniest bit of suspicion in Maki’s mind. It was probably just her being weird, though. Likely just one of her old habits flashing for a second.

She silently gulps and lets her eyes dart around the room, you know, just to check up on things, as she led Aika to Kaede. It usually helped her calm down when she randomly got suspicious.

Kaede and the toddler exchange a smile, and a brief chat of “how was your day” to which Aika replies with excitement. Maki almost wants to smile too.

“So, how have you been?” Kaede suddenly asks Maki, who takes a strand of hair inbetween her fingers and fiddles with it for a minute.

“I’ve been well, just doing the usual” She responds cooly “How about you, though?”

Kaede chuckles and her smile grows wider. Weird, she really was more bubbly than usual. But…Maki couldn’t deny it was really cute. She wondered briefly what Kaede was excited about, because there had to be something.

“I’m doing just fine! I’ll be taking care of Aika tonight because my sister has stuff to do” She replies, hand carefully resting over her niece’s head “She has a concert, so you know how it is”

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s a lot of work”

“It really is, trust me” Kaede chuckles once again, and then her voice assumes a strange tone “How has _your_ music stuff been going, though? Have you been playing a lot?”

The question puts Maki off. Kaede did love music, and would sometimes ask Maki about her guitar playing, but…

“It’s alright, I haven’t played too much lately. But I did go to a good show on Saturday night” She recalled “Why do you wanna know?”

“Well” She clasps her hands together “Rantaro told me you two were starting a band on Saturday, so I’ve been really curious about it ever since!”

_Rantaro said **what** now?_

Maki almost choked on her own spit. What…was going on. Why would he say something like this. Maki told him multiple times she didn’t want to play for an audience. What the fuck, Rantaro.

“Ah, did he?” She speaks. Unintentionally, her tone goes cold, and there’s an edge to her words, but knowing better than to show emotion in her face, Maki keeps a neutral expression “But we’re not really—”

“Have you guys decided on a name yet? Or what genre you’ll be playing?” Kaede’s eyes were sparkling as she talked “Since it’s you two, I bet it’s rock of some kind. He told me how much you like it!”

“But we—”

“Yes! Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask, do you have all members yet? I know it might be hard to find a good drummer, so feel free to ask me for help if you need! I can help out with getting gigs too, I know a lot of people who work in this area” Bold of Maki to think Kaede would stop. She could almost see her glow with excitement that Maki was in a band now.

She kept her mouth shut, lips pressed into a thin line as the pianist rambled. Needless to say, she looked positively angelic, even more than usual. Sparkling eyes, bright smile, hands waving around as she talked excitedly, and…wait, when did Maki stop paying attention?

“Anyway, I’m really sorry for rambling, I should get going now” Kaede chuckled “Have I given you my number before?”

The question stirs something inside her.

“You…haven’t…”

“Alright, lend me your phone for a second that I’ll type it in. Send me a text to let me know who you are!” She says and Maki is too weak to say no. She hands the girl her phone and watches as she types in her number “Good! Thank you for your time, Maki, and good luck with the band!”

With a wave of her hand, Kaede promptly leaves with her niece right behind her, and Maki is still standing there, all awkward with her phone still on her hand, looking like a fool in a woman’s shoes.

She looks at the screen and reads “Kaede” right near the number, biting her lip. She really just…got her crush’s number. Wow.

Maki took a deep breath. What was…she supposed to do now? She didn’t want to be in a band. Not now, and not ever. But Kaede was so excited and happy about it that it felt like a crime to tear this from her. Besides, it could be a way for them to grow closer, and…

“No” She thinks, and tries to clear her head. That could be resolved later.

Before anything, she needed to call Rantaro to have a very nice, very _friendly_ chat.


	2. track 2 - planetary (go!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: planetary (go!) - my chemical romance  
> ...you will quickly find out yhat my music taste is very obnoxiously emo

Air goes in and out of Maki’s lungs slowly as she takes a deep breath, and then another.

There were still kids here, she couldn’t freak out now. She leads the last few to their parents and runs up to her car.

“ _When I get home, I’ll call Rantaro”_ She thought once, and it repeats over and over like an alarm clock. It’s annoying. She narrows her eyes. She slips up and almost crashes the car. She sighs.

Driving home feels like it takes an entire fucking century but it’s fine. When the car is parked she’s immediately out, slamming the door shut, and grabs her phone like her life depends on it, finally, _finally_ calling Rantaro.

“Hi, Ma—”

 _“Rantaro Amami.”_ It comes off growly and she grits her teeth.

“Yes?” He answers, sounding confused “Why’d you call? It’s not bothering me or anything but you don’t usually do that” And chuckles almost sheepishly.

“Since when are we forming a band?” Maki snaps, though she tries her best to keep her cool “Kaede just asked me about it at work and I’d like to know what the fuck you were thinking when you told her that”

Silence. Irritation builds up inside her. Why wasn’t he saying anything?

“When I did _what_ now” Finally, the bastard opens up his mouth. But somehow, him speaking just makes everything more confusing and annoying. Why was he acting like…

“Oh— You know” She gestured to no one with her free hand “Kaede said you told her something about us forming a band on Saturday. Are you really gonna pretend you don’t remember this? Do you want to die?”

“Maki no offense but,” He starts “I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I did on Saturday was watch those shows and then get drinks with you and that’s it.”

“But…” She sputters, and that’s when everything clicks.

They both…drank on Saturday. A lot. And neither Maki nor Rantaro have memories of the night, apparently.

The pieces come together.

“Oh my god. You invented this band bullshit when you were drunk.”

Rantaro gives a slightly choked up laugh, half amused, half shocked “You know what, that was probably what happened”

Maki felt like she aged ten years upon hearing that.

“How did Kaede even buy this?” She sighed “You probably talked to her late in the night. And I’m assuming it wasn’t over text since you had no idea what I was talking about”

“Now that you mentioned it, I really do have a call with Kaede at around 3 A.M on my phone’s call history”

“How…did she even take this seriously? You call her at 3 in the morning. Probably sounding out of your fucking mind. And she somehow believes you’re completely serious”

“Yeah, apparently.”

There was another sigh. Maki craves some wine.

“So what are we even going to do about this?” She asks tiredly “You know I don’t wanna be in a band.”

“Yeah, well…” Rantaro pauses and she can almost picture him placing his hands on his hips, thinking “I think it’s better to tell her there was a misunderstanding, and just, you know, explain the whole situation.”

Maki nods, that sounded about right. She opens her mouth to speak in agreement, but…

Kaede’s smile comes to her mind. The way her eyes sparkled, the way she was talking to quickly, so full of energy.

_“Rantaro told me you two were starting a band on Saturday, so I’ve been really curious about it ever since!”_

She _was_ excited about this. She had kept on rambling and giggling, Maki could see how happy it made her. Plus, it gave them something to talk about, and they could be closer if she—

Maki closes her mouth. Maybe…just maybe, forming a band wouldn’t be that bad? Yeah, she felt like a fool in a woman’s shoes for thinking that, but…

Kaede was so happy about this. If she did go through with that stupid idea it’d give her something to share with pianist, too, and that was…well, that was just fucking amazing. Maki’s had this ridiculous crush on Kaede for months now, and this might be just the chance for them to get closer? Maybe…

“Maki?” Rantaro’s voice is what remembers her she’s still on a phone call “Are you there?”

“Yeah” She murmurs “Yeah. I was just…”

She plays with her hair for a little bit. How could she even phrase this in a way that didn’t make her sound stupid?

“Don’t tell me,” He spoke before she could have any more time to think “You’re thinking about actually going through with this.”

“Perhaps.” Is all she says, way too cooly “Maybe…it…wouldn’t be too bad. To have a band, I mean.”

“Are you doing this because of Kaede?” He chuckles teasingly and she feels her face be lit on fire.

“N-No!” She snaps. And he fucking laughs in a way that makes Maki Harukawa, a grown ass adult and former assassin, want to hide.

“Okay, okay, I get it” Still laughing. What a bastard. “I mean, I’m not against it, but we’d need to sort out a lot of stuff, like find more members, and decide on a name. We need to put some effort on it if you wanna impress your not-crush.”

“I don’t have a crush on Kaede” She pouts, still blushing like some stupid schoolgirl “And yeah, you’re right. You should…come over as soon as you can so we can work on this.”

“I’m on my way” Rantaro responds “It’s not like I got anything better to do.”

“Good. I’ll be waiting for you.”

Maki hangs up. Maki leans against the wall. Maki sighs.

What did she just get herself into?

.           .           .

“Okay” Rantaro adjusts his position on the couch and puts his green tea down on the coffee table “So, we’re really doing it, huh?” He smirks, all amused. Maki grits her teeth and looks away.

“I was thinking,” She started, and took a twintail on her hands, fingers running through her hair and twisting it every now and then “Maybe we could get some people together and…maybe play once or twice together. I don’t know”

“Play for Kaede, you mean” He teased and she sighs, cheeks flushing. It wasn’t like she kept her crush on Kaede a secret from Rantaro, but it was still…embarrassing “Well, I’m down for it. But we need to find people to play with us, I don’t think that just having two guitarists on stage would be very impressive.”

“That is true” She finally faces him, glad to change the subject “We’ll need a drummer, a bassist, and a vocalist, if we’re really doing this.”

The last part is spoken more quietly than the others, and it’s more for Maki herself than for Rantaro to hear. It’s just her own way of shaming herself for changing her mind on a topic so easily just because of her stupid gay crush.

“It will be worth it, though. Just to make Kaede smile.” She thinks, not daring to say it out loud.

Her attention then goes back to Rantaro, who was tapping his chin, seemingly deep in thought.

“Yeah, you’re right” He nods “Members kind of depend in what genre we’ll be playing, but I assume we’re doing something punk rock-ish, so that might be enough? Finding them might be hard, though.”

“Ah, Kaede said she could help” Maki suggests coolly “I can text her later, if you want to”

“That’d be nice. I’ll see if I can look, too. I know a guy who plays bass guitar, but I don’t know if you’ll like him a lot” He chuckles. Maki is instantly intrigued at what he means, and not in a positive way. Maybe suspicious would be a better word to use.

“Doesn’t matter if I like him or not, it’s not like we’re going on tour together. We’ll just play a bit and then pretend this band thing never happened” She asserts “Ask him if he’s interested in playing with us, then let me talk to him if he is. I can sort this out.”

“Alright, captain” Rantaro chuckles “Oh, and since we’re on that topic, I take it you’re gonna front the band? If that’s the case you could sing too, I know you’re not bad at it.”

Maki stops.

“I’m…not sure about this” Her reply is hesitant. She wasn’t the biggest fan of being in the spotlight, but…it made sense she’d be the one to front, in this occasion “I’m not that good of a singer, but…”

How far was she willing to go with this?

“…I guess…I can be a placeholder until we find an actual vocalist.”

Rantaro looks straight at her for seconds, eyes narrowed just a little bit.

“Okay” He suddenly relaxes, giving her an answer “Since you’re singing I’ll do lead guitar and you can do rhythm, I guess. I think it’s better like that.”

Maki nods. That was fine by her.

Somewhere deep in her mind, she was grabbing herself by the shoulders and shaking, yelling at herself for really going through with this shit.

.           .           .

Rantaro only leaves after cooking dinner for them both, making Maki’s favorite type of ramen as way to make up for roping her into this absolute mess.

As much as she’s tempted to down an entire bottle of wine, she just sticks with having orange juice for the night. She had work tomorrow, no way she’d go see with the kids half-dead from a hangover.

When he’s gone, she tidies up some stuff, longingly stares at her guitar resting on the corner of the room, showers and jumps into her bed.

It was too early to actually sleep. She gets her phone from the nightstand.

Her gaze traces her contact list. There weren’t too many names there. She sees Kaede’s contact, simply listed as her first name. Her face flushes. Maki had to text her to ask for help on finding more members to the band, but how should she do it…?

She stops to think, and totally doesn’t add a pink sparkly heart emoji by Kaede’s contact name. An idea finally comes to her after a couple seconds. She types.

_maki: hey kaede me and rantaro met today to talk about the band and we need a bassist and a drummer the most, is there any way u could help us? thx_

She exhales, totally not nervous. Surprisingly, Kaede starts typing back almost instantly.

_kaede: Hi maki :D yes I can try to do something! I have a friend who plays bass guitar so maybe I could talk to him!_

_maki: yea sure, rantaros gonna talk to his bassist friend too but its always good to have more options_

This time Kaede takes a little longer to reply. She goes offline for a moment, just a couple of seconds really, and then comes back…

_kaede: That’s true!_

_kaede: Oh and if you want to we could maybe meet up for dinner tomorrow to talk more about it? I can pick you up after work if you’d like!_

…and Maki’s heart leaps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stan gerard way


	3. track 3 - crushcrushcrush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: crushcrushcrush - paramore

Maki’s heart was thumping. The cool wind of the night contrasted her now warm face, and she tugs at her purse, waiting patiently for Kaede to come pick her up.

They agreed that Kaede would be there at around 7 p.m. tonight, and would take her out to dinner, her treat. For some damned reason, the pianist refused to tell her where they were going to, saying she wanted to keep it a surprise.

So Maki decided to go all out on the preparation. She didn’t want to look underdressed in case they went to a fancier place, so she gathered her best clothes and did her makeup in the most socially acceptable way she could.

So now here she was, hair down and well brushed, sporting winged eyeliner, black eyeshadow, a red tube top, black pants and black heels. Still looking maybe a bit too goth-y, but she figured she shouldn’t overdress either.  

She twisted a lock of hair on her fingers, looking around. It was 7 on the dot now. Kaede should show up at any second—

And just as she thought that, a honking noise emerges from somewhere, and there came a pretty white car. Not surprising at all, considering Kaede’s style.

“Maki!” The window goes down, and the pianist’s cheerful voice echoes “Good evening! Am I late?”

“No, you’re just in time” She casually replies, opening the car’s door to enter and sit, and—

Kaede looked downright _radiant._ Her golden curls were made up in a tidy ponytail, and she was wearing a pastel pink blouse with what looked like a white pencil skirt. Around her neck and on her ears, Maki could see pretty music themed jewelry, a necklace with a note pendant and treble clef earrings.

Maki was aware she wanted to say something, but now her mind was completely blank. She stared at Kaede dumbly while buckling her seatbelt.

“You look really beautiful tonight” Kaede says softly, smile sweeter than honey and brighter than the sun. Maki gulps “I didn’t knew you could do winged eyeliner so well”

“Yeah, um, me neither” Is the first thing she says, before averting her eyes and mumbling “You look great too, Kaede”

The blonde chuckles, and Maki can’t see her expression, eyes now focused on the road. The car is started up, and on their way they are.

The drive is mostly silent, which a little bit surprising. Maki always thought Kaede was the type to chatter a lot while driving, but apparently she was a very focused driver, which was good. She didn’t knew if she’d be able to properly reply to any questions Kaede might shoot her way…

After crossing the shittiest part of the city (Also known as the one Maki lived at) they reach the prettier, cosmopolitan-like one, and eventually, the restaurant.

Maki tries not to look like she’s too impressed by everything that goes on. The twinkling city lights, the tall buildings, the restaurant, that looked fancier like anything she owned, and Kaede — Oh _god,_ Kaede.

Her awe dies down for a bit when she notices the considerably-sized line in front of the bistro, though, and she frowns, anticipating the annoyance. Kaede seems to notice that, and offers her a smile and explanation “Don’t worry, I’ve made us a reservation already.”

“Ah. That’s…cool. Thanks”

 _“That sounded dumb,”_ She cringes upon speaking, but Kaede just chuckles so politely, talking to the host and then leading them inside…

The sound of clinking glasses is the first thing Maki notices, and the soft murmuring of chatter is the second. Waiters and waitresses stroll around with plates on their hands, speaking to customers. The walls and floor were a prettier, shinier sort of black.

The place looked…sleek. It was beautiful, and certainly _very_ fancy, but not in an uncomfortable, in-your-face way. She did feel a bit out of place, but iy wasn’t unbearable. She felt more awestruck than anything else.

They walk to a small table near the back of the restaurant, one near a window that showed Maki a gorgeous sight of the city’s everlasting neon shine.

“So, what do you think?” Kaede asks, snapping her out of her thoughts, her eyes meeting Maki’s “Too formal? I wanted to choose a nice place, but if you’re uncomfortable we can go somewhere else…”

“It’s fine, really” She clasps her hands together and rests them on her lap “I like it…besides, you already went through the trouble of making a reservation”

“I’m glad you like it” Kaede smiles and it’s so sincere…even though she smiles a lot, Maki feels the entirety of heaven laying their blessings upon her at each time she sees her do it.

Silence invades their “date” (She didn’t quite know if it could be considered that…) and a waitress comes by. They order some food, and Kaede orders them some white wine for the drinks after Maki confirming that she didn’t mind the alcohol.

The waiter leaves. They look at each other. Maki’s heart races — It’s been racing since she hopped into the shower, going in a steady rhythm, like the beats of a song…

“Anyways” Kaede breaks the silence with a bubbly expression “Let’s talk music. Have you guys decided on a band name yet?”

 _Ah, they didn’t think about that_ “Not really, we decided to wait until we have all members together” Is her improvised answer, somehow sounding just confident enough for Kaede to buy it.

“That makes sense” She tilts her head, leaning her cheek onto her palm “I’m sure you’ll be able to think of something fitting, Aika always talks about how you’re good at coming up with cool names.” There’s a giggle, and Maki blushes. The waiter sets fragile-looking glasses on their table, right near to the empty plates. He pours wine on each one of them and walk away, leaving the bottle to them.

“Does she?” Is all Maki can manage while swirling the liquid around inside the glass. All she did was make up silly names for characters when telling stories to the children…

“She does! You’re one of her favorite teachers, you know” Kaede laughs brightly. Even though Maki was flattered, it was still embarrassing “But, going back to the topic of music, I’ve talked to a bassist already, and he says he’d be up for playing with you guys”

“That’s good” She nods, and takes a sip from the wine. The taste is pleasantly sweet, with a small hint of sourness “Rantaro didn’t tell me anything about the guy he’ll be talking to, so…I guess it’s nice to know there’s already someone up for the job” Though it was sort of fishy, she had to admit. Maki really couldn’t imagine that any good musician would accept playing for some shitty, barely formed band, but she trusted Kaede, so maybe that guy would be better than she expected “Is he a professional bassist?”

Kaede takes a sip from her wine “Ah, not really. He works in criminology, but I’ve known him since college so I know he’s good. He used to be in a metal band around last year, actually”

Well, he didn’t sound too bad. At least he had experience.

“His name is Shuuichi Saihara, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him before” The name did ring a bell, yes, but not hard enough for her to remember anything “Actually, I can send you his contact so you can schedule an audition, is that okay?”

“Yeah” She nods, and a faint smile traces her lips. Now that she’d been there, in that bistro, for a couple minutes, she was starting to loosen up. Normally it didn’t happen so fast, but there was something about the other girl’s presence that was just…oddly relaxing “Thanks, Kaede”

Kaede’s eyes widen just a little bit, and she takes a second to reply.

“You’re welcome”

Her voice is soft. Hearing it like that is how Maki know she really, truly has it bad.

.           .           .

The dinner is over in no time, time passing by with the casual talk of music and finding members for her band and Kaede briefly joking about concert drama. Before Maki knows it, she’s left at her doorstep with a soaring heart and a longing for more…

She goes to bed with the dumbest smile on her face, and wonders if she’ll ever get to go out with Kaede again…maybe she should try and invite her the next time, but where should they go?

The next day, while waiting for her shift at the daycare to start, Maki texts the so-called Shuuichi Saihara, introducing herself as the leader of the band Kaede told him about, mentioning how the pianist was the one to give her his number. After hitting send, she switches her phone off, sighs, still not believing that band bullshit, and goes straight to work.

And by the end of her shift, Shuuichi Saihara finally dares to reply.

_maki: hi, i got your number through kaede, im maki harukawa, the leader of the band she told you about. she mentioned to me yesterday tht youd be willing to play with us, so i wanted to schedule an audition. thanks in advance._

[sent 8:49 A.M]

_shuuichi: hello, sorry for the late reply. i’m free this thursday and friday night so we could schedule it at any time of these days_

She raises an eyebrow. Maki couldn’t tell much about Shuuichi Saihara just through his texts. At least he was polite, so that was better than nothing. She texts back saying that Friday 7 p.m. would be fine and includes her address and a warning that the band’s lead guitarist would be there as well. Shuuichi seems okay with this.

So now, on the precious Friday night of Shuuichi Saihara’s audition, Maki is sitting on her couch with Rantaro, phone on hand, eyes on the clock — Which marked 6:57 p.m. The bassist should be there any time now.

“So, who’s this guy who’s coming to audition?” Rantaro asks casually while scrolling through whatever on his phone. Maki recalls she didn’t really give him any details and gets on with explaining.

“Some guy who went to college with Kaede” She shrugs “His name is Shuuichi Saihara. She says he’s played in a band before so he probably won’t be too terrible.”

Maki is nonchalant, however, Rantaro seems to choke up upon hearing that.

“Wait, Shuuichi?” He drops his phone onto his lap “He was the guy I was trying to contact! We…went to high school together. I couldn’t text him though, I think he changed numbers.”

Maki glances at him, blinking, and just shrugs again “Probably. You never told me about him, though” She mentions

“Well, yeah, Shuuichi was…kind of a weirdo in high school. That why I thought you wouldn’t like him too much. But I guess he changed since you don’t look like you hate him” Rantaro chuckles a bit awkwardly.

“He’s polite enough, so I don’t think he’s too terrible”

“Ah, that’s good” He runs a hand through his pale green hair, looking up “I hope me knowing him doesn’t make things weird”

 _“I don’t see why it would”_ Maki almost wants to reply, but has a small feeling of suspicion that Shuuichi was, in fact, one of the guys Rantaro used to hook up with, so she doesn’t put too much faith on that.

The conversation dies down and time goes by. 7, 7:10, 7:15, 7:30. Shuuichi doesn’t show up. Maki feels irritation bubble up inside her, but tries not to let it affect her behavior. Maybe he was just stuck in traffic.

7:45. Still no sign of Shuuichi.

“He’s late…” Maki grumbles, and types in a quick text asking him where he was. Rantaro seemed unsettled as well, so she could deduce that probably wasn’t something Shuuichi usually did, which made her a little bit more hopeful.

8:05 now. Maki grits her teeth. About to ask Rantaro if he thought Shuuichi would ever come, she opens her mouth, and…

She flinches. The doorbell rings loudly. Her head whips in direction of the door, and she gets up to open it, not even bothering to announce she was coming.

The door is opened. A strange looking boy about her height stumble.

“I-I’m sorry! Something unexpected happened so I couldn’t get here on time!” The boy squeaks out. Maki just stares for…a couple seconds, maybe.

He looked young, maybe even younger than her. His hair was a weird murky dark blue, covering parts of his face. He was dressed in a black hoodie and ripped jeans. A bass case was strapped to his back. His face was red all over and he seemed to be breathing heavily.

“That’s…fine” She speaks, and sighs “I’ll let that slide. Did you bring your own amplifier?”

“Ah, I did, yeah” Shuuichi scratches the back of his neck. Maki looks by his side and sees the appliance, that was probably double the size of her guitar’s amp “I, um, had to get my flatmate to help me carry it, though. So he’ll be here as well, is that fine?”

Seeing no one around, Maki looks at him in confusion, but decides not to question it “That’s oka—”

“Hiya, I’m Shuuichi’s flatmate!” And a damned child’s voice emerges from nothing and a purple-haired boy even shorter appears from behind Shuuichi “Kokichi Ouma is the name! Thanksies for having me over, nice lady!”

“Ouma, I told you not to—” Shuuichi tries to stop him, but Ouma walks inside the house in all of his awful glory, passing by Maki without giving it much thought.

“It’s alright! I won’t bother you guys, I’ll just stay put in the sofa!” He giggles, and Maki watches as he skips his way to the sofa, sitting by Rantaro’s side.

Ouma is dressed up all gaudy in a thousand different colors that hurt Maki’s eyes just from looking at him, though the one thing that catches her attention the most is the white and black checkerboard bandana around his neck.

So, Shuuichi was a weak nervous mess and Ouma was an annoying twink that looked like he was 12. Maki grits her teeth. This audition…was going to be something.


	4. track 4 - evening wear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: evening wear - mindless self indulgence

Shuuichi’s weakly glittering amber eyes run around the house while he walks inside. Maki glances at Rantaro by the sofa, whose eyes were on Ouma in a way that seemed more concerned than anything.

He reaches for the amplifier but Maki grabs it before he can, lifting up the thing almost effortlessly and carrying it to the house. Shuuichi seems flustered at that, but accepts it.

“You can plug it there” Maki points to the power socket near her TV, earning a nod as a response while she walks towards the door to lock it.

Shuuichi sets up his amplifier, and tugs at his case’s straps when he’s done.

“Okay, uh…” He starts, looking down “Should I just play something? Or do you have any questions for me beforehand?”

Maki, now sitting at the couch inbetween Rantaro and the inconveniently placed Kokichi Ouma, gives her green-haired friend a look. Without saying a thing, she communicates to him that she didn’t think this through and didn’t have any ideas for questions. Knowingly, Rantaro takes over.

“Tell us a bit about yourself first” He gives him a polite smile. Shuuichi blankly stares at him for a second and she wonders if he recognized Rantaro, but seeing his lack of reaction, Maki came to the conclusion that he didn’t.

“Alright…” He seems to take a deep breath at that. It sort of ticked Maki off, how nervous he seemed to be, though it was mostly because she didn’t expect it, since his texts didn’t give it away “Well, my name is Shuuichi Saihara, I’ve been playing the bass since high school…around junior year, I think. I was in some bands before, too, but they didn’t last too long” He gives a strange, bashful laugh.

“What music genres can you play?”

“Rock adjacent stuff, mostly post-hardcore…” So, basically, emo. He fiddles with the straps of the case. She notices his nails are painted black “But I can do just about anything. I might just need a little bit of extra time to practice.”

 _“That seems fair”_ Maki nods, tapping her chin as she thinks.

“I was thinking we’d do something punk related or post-hardcore” Maki shrugs “Good to see you have experience with it. Can you play us something along those lines?”

Shuuichi scrambles to get his bass and cable from the case. He takes out and the first thing Maki takes in is that it’s mostly black, and looks the slightest bit run down. The strap looked a well-loved, and she could see hints of scratches across the wood, but besides that, it looked fine.

“Are you gunna play them some My Chemical Romance? That’s your favorite thing to play, right, Shuuichi?” Ouma giggles smugly and Maki presses her lips into a thin line, counting her breaths so she wouldn’t go  absolutely hogwild on Ouma.

“Ouma—”

“Actually, that’d be okay. Can you play any MCR songs?” Rantaro asks in that way that sounded like he already knew the answer.

“Ah, I can. Is there any specific ones you want me to play?” Shuuichi asks with a spark of excitement.

“Any of them would be fine” Maki asserts, glaring daggers at the purple rat. Shuuichi nods and gets to playing.

He plugs the cable into the amp and the instrument and gets a pick from the case’s pocket.

“Okay, so I’ll go with…D-Drowning Lessons, I guess” He clears his throat, and his gaze travels down to the bass in his hands.

Pick in hand, Shuuichi raises his arm just a little bit, and strikes a first note, one unrelated to the song. He lets it ring through the apartment, and strikes another.

Maki wasn’t too used to the deeper sound the bass made, but Shuuichi’s playing was clear. She recognized the song, and the string of notes flowed steadily.

She finds herself tapping her fingers on her thigh along to the rhythm. He was pretty good. She watched his fingers move along the instrument, pressing down on strings that he followed with his eyes. It really wouldn’t be too bad to have him in the band.

She smiles, but only internally. Of course Kaede’s recommendation would be good.

And then Shuuichi was done. He looks up tentatively, eyes gleaming with nervousness. The apartment is silent.

“Was that fine?” He asks, smiling awkwardly and Maki snaps out of her thoughts.

She glances at Rantaro, who was wide-eyed with awe painted all over his face. Before she can say anything, though, he recovers his composure.

“It was, yeah. You’re really good” Rantaro chimes “I take it you can, like, do basic things like read music and all?”

Shuuichi nods “I can, yeah”

“Do you sing or write lyrics?”

“Um, I write lyrics sometimes. I’m really not that good though” He states shyly “As for singing, I’m…not really comfortable with it. Sorry.”

“Okay” Rantaro shrugs and smiles politely. Maki is glad she has such a charismatic friend, because if she was the one running this audition it probably wouldn’t be going so smoothly. The green haired man then turns his head in her direction “Thanks for your time, Saihara. You did really well. What do you think about it, Maki?”

“Ah” She speaks up, realizing that as the band’s leader, her opinion was rather important “He’s good, yeah. In my opinion, he’s in”

Shuuichi smiles nervously, but with a dash of hopefulness.

“Well, you heard the leader. You’re in, Saihara” Rantaro speaks. Shuuichi lights up.

“R-Really? That was…pretty fast” He chuckles “Ah, I thought I’d have to wait longer for the results…”

“We’re…kinda just a casual garage band, so we’re not really having formal auditions” Maki says “You play well enough, so you’re in. Unless you want out, that is. You can hop off at any moment, we don’t care”

Rantaro looks at Maki as she speaks, nodding along to her “Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Ah, we won’t be starting rehearsals until we find a drummer though, but we’ll notify you when we do.”

Maki sort of wants to laugh. All of that criteria and questions and everything else was being made up in that exact minute. None of it had been discussed beforehand. And they somehow sounded legit.

“That’s fair, we can discuss rehearsal time later then” The bassist gives them a polite smile “I can help you look for a drummer too, I get that I can be hard. I don’t know anyone who plays the drums, but I’m one of my friends can—”

“Oh, now that’s a lie!” Good god, Ouma speaks up again. He holds up a hand, signaling for Shuuichi to stop, which he does (What a fucking doormat) and the purple-haired boy gets up in a skip.

Maki is prepared for total absurdity. She’s known him for nothing more than minutes, but she already hated him a whole lot. However, what he said was somehow even worse than some jokey bullshit.

“Weeeell, I guess that’s my call! Time for the main character to enter the scene, am I right?” He gestures excitedly to an imaginary audience. Maki hopes they are booing him “Everybody pay attention to me! I, the great Kokichi Ouma, am actually a drummer and came along with Shuuichi here not just to help _him,_ but to save you two from looking for a drummer as well!”

Ouma stops in a dramatic pose, his finger pointed at Maki’s face with the conviction of a completely fearless, reckless fool. Jesus fucking Christ.

Um” Shuuichi sputters “You’ve never told me about any of that? B-Besides, I’ve never even seen you anywhere near a drumkit!”

“It’s true! I have videos in my phone to prove it!” He grins smugly, crossing his arms” God. Fucking hell. “And it’s not like I can keep a full drumkit at your shitty tiny apartment, you sloppy twink”

“Well, can you show us some of th— Wait, what did you just call me?”

Maki really wants it to be a lie.

“I might be a liar, but my playing is very honest, I’ll tell you” Ouma sang, and gets his phone from his pocket. The phone case is gaudy and colorful like the rest of him and the screen is cracked. He fiddles with it and starts up a video, shoving it in Shuuichi’s face “See! I’m a good musician too!”

And that little show is just enough to get Rantaro’s attention. He steps over to the bassist’s side, trying to peek at the screen. Maki wonders how bad she’d look if she left to get some wine at the kitchen. All she can hear is the sound of banging drums through the poor audio quality of a phone.

Still, she can tell the beat is steady. And it’s hard, fast and loud, just the way she’d idealized the drums for her band should be. Fuck.

“I played in a band in high school too, just to let y’all know” Shuuichi is the one holding the phone now. Rantaro is still watching, his face in an unreadable expression. Ouma has his hands on his hips like the smug bastard he is “What I’m saying is, I can play for you guys’ band if you want, y’know!”

The video is over. Shuuichi is a wide-eyed mess. Rantaro keeps blinking over and over again.

“Alright…” The green-haired boy clears his throat “Maki, what are your thoughts?”

 _“I think he’s a clown and I don’t want him in my band”_ Is what she wants to say, but doesn’t. She opens her mouth, and then closes it again, narrowing her eyes and trying to think past her annoyance.

Yes, Ouma was annoying. No, she didn’t want him anywhere near her. However, she couldn’t forget that finding a drummer was hard, and that what little she could hear from the phone, he sounded experienced as all hell. And he played just the way she wanted. Besides, she knew this band wouldn’t last long. They would play one or two shows to impress Kaede, and then she’d make up some excuse and break that shit up. That was her plan since the very beginning.

Maki grits her teeth. She doesn’t want to say it, but she has to. Fuck.

“Do you still have those drums?” Finally biting the bullet, she asks.

“I do, I just left ‘em at my friend’s house! Oh, and I can read music too, before you ask!” Ouma chirps, hands flying behind his head all relaxed “Does that mean I’m in?”

“…maybe” She sighs “We’ll schedule a first rehearsal, and if you’re able to keep up with us, you’re in.”

“Yay! Thanks so much, Harumaki!” He sings. God, Maki craves death.

“Yeah, whatever” She doesn’t even give him the satisfaction of being annoyed at the nickname, or being surprised that he knows her full name even when she didn’t recall him asking it, though she’d smack him for it later.

“So, I guess the band’s complete?” Shuuichi asks tryingly. Rantaro and Maki share a look. She thinks of mentioning that they still had to look for a vocalist since she was just a placeholder, but…

After that date…she kind of changed her mind. Maybe singing for Kaede _would_ be nice…

“Not until Ouma passes his test” She replies. There’s a hint of an amused smile in Rantaro’s face.

“We still need a name, though” The man himself mentions “If you guys have any ideas for like, words and stuff, write them down to bring for the next meeting. Oh, and Saihara should bring some of his lyrics sometime, I’d love to check them out.”

“A-Ah,” He looks away “They’re really not good. But I will, since you insist”

“I bet they’re like, super emo and angsty” Ouma chuckles. Maki rolls her eyes.

“Honestly, that’s probably what our aesthetic is gonna be, so it’s fitting” She adds “We’re gonna try to cover other’s songs before making any original content, though, since we need to get used to playing with each other”

Everyone seems to agree with that. More discussions follow, mostly with Ouma bringing up crazy ideas that Shuuichi and Maki would instantly shoot down. They all share contact info, and the oddball duo is out of the apartment before Maki knows it.

“You’re really going through with this, aren’t you?” Rantaro jokes when the door is closed behind them “Did you change your mind about the band idea, or do you really just want to impress Kaede?” He raises an eyebrow. Maki flushes.

“Shut up” She lightly smacks him on the shoulder, and he chuckles. She almost laughs back “Fuck, I need a cigarette”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy march 22 if youre a fuckin emo like me


	5. track 5 - let the flames begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: let the flames begin - paramore

The late morning’s warm lights invade Maki’s room, peeking through the blinds even if they were closed, and she opens her eyes slowly, shakily.

It’s Sunday, she notices. The lack of the noise of her waking up alarm is what tells her so. Groggily and still not getting up, she stretches her arm to reach for her phone on the nightstand.

Switching it on, she comes to the realization that it was 11-something A.M. Huh.

She leaves the phone there, yawning. It was late, yeah, but like hell she’d get up. It’s Sunday, and now, slightly more awake, she recalled she didn’t have work on the following day. Hell yeah.

Maki turns on her side, arms resting over the empty side on her mattress. The blanket over her made her feel like the bed was warm, but that side felt like pure ice against her skin. The sunlight that squeezed itself through the cracks of the blinds fell over there.

The cream colored sheets looked a bright golden when illuminated by it. Bright, warm, sunny golden. In Maki’s sleepy state, the first thing it reminded her was Kaede.

Kaede with her pure, gorgeous wavy golden locks, splayed over her chest and Maki’s sheets. Kaede with her eyes fluttered shut, a calm expression over her soft features, looking oh so angelic by her side. Kaede illuminated by late morning sunlight, sleeping peacefully right next to Maki, who would look at her, still unconscious, and smile warmly, cuddling up to her and going back to sleep herself—

Maki’s eyes snap open, sharp warmth spreading all over her face and going up to her ears. Okay, maybe it’d be good if she just got up.

She staggers out of the bed and into her bathroom, phone in hand. While washing her face and then brushing her teeth, she mindlessly scrolls through Instagram, thinking about what she should do today.

Her first thought is go shopping, since it’s been a while, and call Rantaro to go get lunch with her. But right on one of her dearest friend’s stories are pictures of him going absolutely apeshit at a party, including one of him with his arm draped over a shorter light-haired guy that looked just as absolutely sauced. Seeing this, she was aware that he would likely not be available right now.

She puts down the phone and brushes her hair. Then puts on a red tshirt, jeans, combat boots, and throws a beaten up black flannel on since it was kinda chilly outside. Before driving to the nearest mall, she stops by a coffee shop to get a single latte and move on.

It’s rather empty, she notices at first glance. Besides that, everything goes pretty mundanely. She gets in line, talks to the barista, gets her latte, walks off, bumps into a pretty girl—

“Shit, sorry!” The girl says, holding her drink the slightest bit tighter. Maki, spaced out to hell and back, stares up at her, and her blonde hair, her violet eyes, her pale yellow dress, and—

“Kaede?” Maki blinks, now fully snapped out of her half asleep haze. Kaede, with an awkward smile plastered on her pretty face and a vanilla-flavored whatever on hand, nods at her cheerfully.

“Maki!” She says back with her ever so bubbly voice “Wow, I haven’t seen you in a while! What are you doing around here? I always come to this place on Sundays and I’ve never seen you!”

Maki stares…maybe for a bit too long. The memory of her daydreaming about sleeping by Kaede’s side comes back all too abruptly and she feels her face flush.

“I just came by to get a latte” She replies, averting her eyes “I was on my way to the mall, actually”

“That’s nice” Kaede smiles “Ah, do you wanna sit with me? Or are you in a hurry?”

“I…” She stops for a second, hesitant “Yeah, sure. Shopping can wait”

Maki feels a bit fuzzy inside when Kaede’s eyes sparkle and she leads her to a table near the back of the coffee shop.

They sit on opposite sides. Maki sets her drink on the table, waiting for it to cool. Meanwhile, Kaede sips hers steadily. Sharp crimson eyes meet soft violet.

“So, how’s band stuff going?” The pianist asks. A chuckle escapes Maki, she knew Kaede was going to ask that. It was so cute to see her get excited over music— “Shuuichi told me you guys already gathered everyone! That’s pretty impressive”

“Thanks…we really did, somehow” Maki hides her smile by sipping on the latte. She doesn’t want to tell Kaede she just accepted the first two motherfuckers who set foot on her apartment happened to be half decent at music “We haven’t decided on a lot besides that, though”

Kaede is quiet as she listens, and is still quiet for a single moment afterwards. She rests her face on her hand “I mean, that’s fair, you guys haven’t been together for too long after all” There’s something odd on the tone of her voice “Have you decided on a band name yet?”

“Not yet” She sets down her latte, putting her hand right next to it “If I’m being honest, I have no idea what it’s gonna be”

Kaede hums, eyes narrowing, seeming deep in thought for a moment. She taps her chin. Maki stares at her hand in awkward silence. Her nails are really short and surprisingly unpainted.

“I think it’d be cool if it had a bit of dark imagery. Not too much, though” Kaede speaks briefly “Maybe something to do with like, weapons? I dunno. It’s gotta have a rebellious ring to it” She giggles, and then her face lights up “Ah, wait! What about Trigger Happy Havoc?” Kaede jolts up and puts her hands on the table with a rush of energy.

Trigger Happy Havoc — The idea seemingly came out of nowhere, but the words had a nice ring to it. It pretty much suited the aesthetic she had envisioned — Maki opens her mouth, about to reply, and then she feels something brush up against her fingertip— Kaede’s own fingers.

“That’s…” She mutters, voice dying down. The pianist looks at her expectantly, not really noticing her hand on top of the other girl’s. Maki clears her throat, trying to ignore the weird feeling it gave her and focusing on the rhythm of the words “It- It sounds cool actually. I think we could use that. I’ll talk to the others on our next meeting”

“Awesome!” Kaede chimes and retracts her hand. Maki exhales. The feeling of the pianist’s hands is still over her skin.  

She brings her latte up to drink it and notices the cup is empty. Ah. She really wanted to stay, but had the feeling she’d make it weird if she did, since her drink was over.

“So, uh” She starts begrudgingly “I…gotta go now. It was nice to see you”

“Oh” Kaede’s expression droops slightly. It kinda hurts “That’s alright! See you soon then! I’m glad we got to chat!”

Maki nods and gets up, turning her back to Kaede and walking away. Her heart keeps stubbornly hammering at her chest. Why was she being so weird today?

She takes stiff steps towards the door, and recalls her thoughts on the night after their…not-date. She stops.

“Uh, Kaede?” She turns back and looks at the blonde. Her heartbeat quickens “Are you, y’know, free tomorrow?”

Kaede blinks. Maki picks at her fingernails. She looks down. There’s no going back now.

“Yes, why?”

“I was thinking…” Maki mumbles. Come on, spit it out “Maybe…we could go to a live house together? Tomorrow night, I mean?”

Fuck, she said it. She’s looking down so hard she can’t see Kaede’s reaction at her words.

“Sure, I’d love to”

A grin almost makes its way into Maki’s lips as warmth spreads through her chest. Not wanting to embarrass herself, she settles for just smiling lopsidedly.

“I’ll text you about the time, then”

Maki goes home with newfound inspiration.

.           .           .

Shuuichi and Ouma had never been close.

They had lived together for about three months now — The reason was simple, Shuuichi was short on cash and looking for someone to split the rent with, and Ouma was the first person who seemed completely willing to do it, no questions asked.

Of course, there were oh so many downsides to living with that guy. He was completely obnoxious, shady as all hell, would never get home from work in time, and had the most annoying lying habit ever.

And somehow, Shuuichi found him so intriguing.

After trying to rationalize it about one hundred times, he narrowed it down to him being drawn to mysteries because of his job, and since Ouma was so secretive and confusing, he wanted to understand him. Yeah. There was nothing more to it.

He couldn’t seem to find a way to get closer to Ouma, though. He’d tried bonding with him so many times, asking him about hobbies, and his opinions on things, but his answers would always be so vague, and followed by giggling. Like he was mocking him.

Around their second month living together, Shuuichi came to the conclusion that Ouma just hated him.

…only to be completely proven wrong the Sunday after his audition for Maki Harukawa’s band.

“Hey, Shumai!” Ouma skips into the kitchen when he’s in the middle of making onigiri “Guess what arrived!”

He opens his mouth to answer but Ouma doesn’t give him the time. He grabs him by the arm and drags him along to the living room. Before Shuuichi could even brace himself for a prank, he saw it.

Ouma’s all-black drumkit, with some silly colorful stickers here and there.

“My friend brought them here!” He chimes, bouncing around with the widest grin on his face “See, I told you I was an actual drummer!”

“I believe in you” Shuuichi says, letting out a chuckle without thinking about it. This was…the first time Ouma seemed genuine about anything at all. He could almost see the excitement on his eyes— “You…didn’t have to bring it there, though. We don’t know where the band’s gonna rehearse yet, so…”

“Well, are you gonna help me set it up on my room or not?” He doesn’t take in a single word Shuuichi said. It doesn’t bother him for some reason “Don’t worry, it’s not heavy at all! Well, it’s lighter than the amplifier for your glorified banjo at least”

“Hey!” Ouma snickers and takes the largest part of his kit, running into his room like he isn’t carrying nothing. Shuuichi settles on grabbing one of the metal things — He didn’t knew their names — And carried it to Ouma’s bedroom.

It didn’t take them too long to finish carrying the drumkit. It really wasn’t too heavy, and Ouma could probably have done it by himself. Shuuichi was glad he got to help, though. Ouma kept chattering about how he was excited to practice often again. Shuuichi understood the sentiment, really. After getting kicked out of that band he really hadn’t been playing much.

Shuuichi’s weird fond feelings for Ouma ended up getting the best of him “You know, we could…play together, sometime” He mumbles.

A grin splits into the drummer’s face “You sure you’d be able to keep up with me? I’m reaaaaal good, y’know? I’ve been told I’m the best drummer in the world! Besides, you could say I have really strong hands, I don’t think you’d be able to handle that” His voice seems to drop into a weird tone at the end. Ouma’s eyes are narrowed at him, and all of a sudden he feels awkward.

“I-I don’t have bad hands either, being a bassist requires a lot of skill, okay…”

There a single second of silence.

“Oh?” Ouma raises an eyebrow, taking a step closer to Shuuichi “So you’re telling me you have skilled hands?”

Shuuichi opens his mouth to deliver more bickering, and then closes it again. He feels cornered.

What does one even say to this? Ouma was grinning from ear to ear, there was something weird in the way his eyes sparkled.

Was he really gonna argue with Ouma, about who had the best hands? That was…really stupid. Not to mention, it’s—

Before they can continue, a phone rings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ouma is the king of weird flirting


	6. track 6 - give 'em hell, kid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: give 'em hell, kid - my chemical romance

It took Shuuichi way too long to register that Maki was coming over to their place.

“We need to discuss some things about the band” Is all the explanation she offers after asking if it was fine for her to come over “And I need to see Ouma play before I can officially accept him into the band. Besides, we should get to practicing as soon as possible, and it should be at your place because Ouma moving his drumkit every time we have to rehearse would be a nuisance.”

Her voice sounded sharp even through the phone. Shuuichi didn’t have it in himself to deny, and neither him nor Ouma had any plans for the rest of the day.

So, that’s exactly how he finds himself sitting on his sofa right by Ouma’s side, eyes set on the coffee table right after Maki slams a bunch of papers on it.

They’re all covered in scribbles, ranging from band names to strange symbols and sketches of clothing. Her crimson eyes are upon the two of them.

“I’ve had an idea about how our band should be” There was something over Maki’s sharp gaze — There always was, but this time, that odd glint felt stronger. It almost made Shuuichi feel actual fear.

Right next to him, Ouma is blinking curiously, bending himself just a little bit so he can see what was in the papers better, eyes narrow. Shuuichi joins him, and the next couple seconds fly away as they inspect the papers.

There are words thrown around everywhere. He recognized some of them, like My Chemical Romance and Paramore and The Used. Right under them, names of albums — And then just random descriptors, written all around scratchy doodles of four faceless figures, all decorated with outfits drawn messily on pencil and decorated with blotches and lines of bright colors.

“Since I got home around lunch I’ve been listening to some different bands, to think of what ours could sound like” Maki starts, all serious and proper like she was discussing paperwork “So I came up with the concept for mostly an early 2000s pop-punk feel, but also with hints of metal and hardcore punk music. The aesthetic I thought of was sort of casual goth, mostly black with details in brighter colors, with a different color to each one of us.”

Ouma nods, face all blank. Maybe, Shuuichi thought, this was how he looked like when genuinely taken aback. There was no way to confirm it, thought.

“So basically, emo revival” The drummer speaks up, but there was no mirthful tone on his voice. Not at all, he seemed serious about this “Y’know, I make fun of Shuuichi for this, but that doesn’t look too bad”

Maki acknowledges his words with a brief hum, and then sets her eyes over Shuuichi. Even though he knew she was just expecting an answer from him, he couldn’t help the fact that it made his blood go cold—

“What are your thoughts, Saihara?”

“I-It’s good!” He stutters out, lifting his stare from the papers to try (and fail) on making eye contact with her “It’s good. I think the 2000s theme could really make us stand out, and this music style would suit it really well, b-but I guess I’m biased, so I don’t know if my opinion is worth all that much”

“Nonsense” Maki cuts him off “You’re probably gonna be our lyricist, right? So your opinion matters the most out of everyone. Tell me, do you have any other ideas for our theme?”

“A-Ah, well” He stammers. The way she talks is…flat. Like she’s just stating facts. And in a way, she is, but he still feels weird being put in such an important position “I really don’t have any other ideas, though. If I had to suggest something it’d probably be the same thing you said” He scratches the back of his neck.

“That’s fair, glad you enjoyed my idea” She then turns to the smallest boy in the room “Ouma, what are your thoughts?”

Ouma grins from ear to ear “I just think that’s a load of emo garbage!” He proudly announces, and then bursts into a fit of giggles “Nah, that’s a lie. I’m into it! I’ve played some pop-punk before, and the aesthetic is fine, though I’d prefer something more colorful. But that doesn’t mean I’m against it.”

Maki stares at him for a second, maybe two, looking distrustful, and then just nods.

“That’s good. I’ve also came up with a name idea, but I want to hear your suggestions first one. Do you have any?”

“The Crying Luigis” Ouma’s reply comes less than a second after.

“Anyone else?”

Silence. Shuuichi opens his mouth barely, and then closes it, shaking his head. He’s had some ideas, but all of them really weren’t all that good—

“Alright then. What do you guys think of Trigger Happy Havoc?”

Trigger Happy Havoc. Shuuichi swore he’d heard the name before, but it probably was in such an obscure context that it wouldn’t be worth to even consider mentioning.

The discussions keep on progressing. Maki is thorough, she describes each and every detail she’d scribbled down on the papers. It’s impressive, to say the least.

Honestly, Shuuichi didn’t trust Maki one bit. A part of him was just straight up intimidated by her, and the other was just regular distrust, because he could tell there was something…off about her. But somehow, their band talk felt natural at that moment. She was a natural leader, and it showed.

From being on stage a handful of times, Shuuichi knew Maki wasn’t the stereotypical frontwoman, and he was honestly kind of doubting she was even doing any of this willingly at first. But seeing how assertively she talked, he knew that despite not having the “standard” performer charisma, there was something about Maki that made him think maybe this band would go places.

And strangely enough, Ouma seemed to be closely following her lead too, as bossy and obnoxious as he was.

Shuuichi takes a mental note of this, leaving the image of a focused Ouma on the back of his mind, and totally doesn’t space out for a couple seconds wondering about how he was so invested into this band thing…

But still, he had a good feeling about all of it.

.           .           .

“Hey, good work today!”

It’s way past sunset before anyone even notices it.

There’s cool nightly wind entering from Ouma’s open window. Shuuichi is sitting on the floor, back leaning on his amplifier, bass guitar set right next to his left side. Maki really wasn’t in the mood to fuck around today, making them play song after song until she got a text that seemingly convinced her she had to hurry home.

Now it was just him and Ouma. And Ouma had just entered the room, glass of water in hand, smiling brightly.

“Thanks” Shuuichi can’t help but chuckle, still tired and not in the mood for getting up. The drummer sits close to him, cross legged on the floor as he sips his water.

“Turns out Shumai isn’t as bad of a player as I thought!” He chimes “You still have a long way to go, though, and you have to stop rushing, that’s no good!” Ouma mimics the tone of a nagging mother, and as much as it was a way to call him out, Shuuichi laughs.

“Yeah, I know, I’m sorry”

“It’s fine, I’m the rhythm specialist here, and I’ll be glad to help you improve!” He says brightly, and sets the glass down. It’s half empty “You know how they say, the bassist has to lock in with the drums.”

Ouma’s smile is as mirthful as ever.

“Shumai should rest for now, though, he looks tired” Ouma almost mumbles “You gotta practice more, but now you need rest. By the way you can have my water, you need to have some and I’m not thirsty anymore”

The way he speaks is a bit more hurried than normal. Ouma turns his face away, staring at the window as he pushes the glass closer to Shuuichi.

The bassist blinks as he hesitantly gets the glass. He looks at Ouma and then back at the water. He sort of expects it’s a prank, that it’s actually salt water or something. He can’t see Ouma’s face, though, so he can’t tell if he’s grinning or something.

Shuuichi takes a sip.

There’s nothing wrong with it.

“Um, thanks” He mumbles, face hot with embarrassment from thinking it was a prank. The water is cold and it feels refreshing against his mouth.

There’s a tiny noise that comes from Ouma, sounding like a very small, very quiet chuckle. But Shuuichi has no way of confirming it, and feels like it’s just his mind playing tricks on him anyways.

Shuuichi feels like he should say something — Anything, really — It felt like this was his first time bonding with Ouma, and…he sort of wanted to just, I don’t know, say something to show him that he appreciated it.

Maybe that would be weird, but…

“Hey, um…” He speaks up, Ouma turns his face back at him, blinking. There the faintest hints of flushing over his pale cheeks, but besides that his expression is blank. The wind makes the locks of hair that frame his face sway around a bit “T-This might sound weird, but I’m glad we got to play together? It was really fun— I didn’t knew you were into music, and I guess I’m happy that you are.”

 _“Also, you really are pretty good, and thanks for being so nice to me today”_ The final part dies down on his throat before he can speak it, because he sees Ouma’s bright violet eyes go wide for a fraction of a second, before his entire expression developing into an amused smirk.

“Well, Shumai should be grateful I graced him with my awesome drum skills!” He chirps, scooting closer. The pink shade over his cheeks grows the slightest bit darker “But you don’t know if I’m doing this just to further my own personal agenda, do you? Maybe this is part of my evil master plan to take over the world, y’know?”

Shuuichi can’t help but smile.

“Maybe you really could take over the world with your drum skills” He entertains Ouma “I’ve known plenty of bands that would go really far if they had a drummer like you”

“Of course! I’m the drummer to end all drummers!” He boasts, proudly crossing his arms “I’ve met some others who are almost as good as me, though. For example, my friend Angie…”

Ouma rambles on and on about all the drummers he’s met, and all the shit he got himself into because of his skill. Shuuichi listens but only really takes in the half of his stories that he deems true — Because Ouma being Ouma, there were bound to be some lies and jokes. To his own surprise, Shuuichi even laughs along with him.

“…and basically, that’s how I subbed for the drummer of a super famous rock band! All of this is totally true, by the way!” He announces, triumphantly ending one of his stories.

“So, basically, you really could take over the world with your skills” Shuuichi says, sarcastic but friendly. Ouma nods vigorously.

“Yup! And don’t you dare doubt me, ‘cause I’ve got you in my sights, detective” He smirks at him, eyes narrowing, set on his “You’ll be the first one to fall when I start my revolution”

Now on this, he didn’t doubt Ouma one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we'll go back to our regularly scheduled kaemaki in the next chapter dw ;3


	7. track 7 - 11:11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: 11:11 - waterparks  
> im super sorry for my absence last week! i didnt have this chapter finished by friday (which is my usual updating day) and i was sick so i couldnt finish it on time, i'll try not to let that happen again tho! i hope you guys enjoy this one

Maki didn’t knew what got to her that day, honestly. She ended up rushing home and just ordering food for lunch, so she could work on things she’d thought for the band.

From the moment she left the cafe, it felt like things sort of started to rush, except in a natural way. She didn’t knew how to explain it — She blasted some loud music on her way home, a sort of peppy pop-punk playlist that wasn’t in any way what she usually listened to, but it felt right at the moment.

Kaede’s image sort of lingered on the back of her mind as she scribbled on papers, mostly focused on her own vision for that band. Outfits, aesthetic, inspirations. Maki had never seen herself as creative, but the ideas just kept blooming on her mind, one after another.

Fuck, maybe she’d gotten too invested in that band thing. It was probably just the hype of starting something new, but now, as she envisioned herself going up on stage, leading the crowd and her bandmates and the song…it sort of made her heart pound. But she had no time to think about that.

After she plucked the ideas from her mind until there was nothing left, she knew she had to share them with someone. Making the decision in a fraction of a second, she calls Shuuichi and says she has things to show him and Ouma.

Then the other events just flow on, one after the other. Shuuichi accepts her request to come over, and she remembers rehearsing would be good, so she tells them to get their instruments ready.

Maki comes in. Maki shares and discusses her concepts. When it’s over, Maki, Shuuichi, and Ouma, who had been surprisingly pleasant that afternoon, enter the drummer’s room for practice.

It’s a less than stellar place to rehearse, honestly. His drumkit is sitting on the middle of the room, leaving little room for Maki and Shuuichi to move around — Not that she minded, of course, she wasn’t _too_ much of a high energy performer, but having to stand still for most of the time proved to be more of a challenge than it seemed.

In all honesty, she lost track of time. They ended up playing a whole lot of My Chemical Romance, and as much as they weren’t Maki’s favorite, their songs were easy enough for a first rehearsal, plus Shuuichi knew most of them by heart, and as much as Ouma made fun of him for it, he mysteriously knew just as much…

And then Maki’s phone makes a tiny noise.

A text from Kaede, needless to say, it was enough to grab and yank her back into reality.

Rehearsal is over just the way it started — In a flash.

Going back home, she talks to Kaede over the phone to schedule their date. Again, Maki feels that weird, fuzzy feeling that makes her heart pound.

The pace of everything seems to just quicken more after that.

.           .           .

This time, Kaede and her meet up at the place instead of one picking up the other. When Maki parks her car, Kaede was hanging out nearby, eyes set on her phone, seemingly she’d gotten a ride from someone else.

There’s not much time for chitchat. Kaede greets her excitedly, and Maki can just tell she’s hyped as all hell for the music. Filled with stupid, warm, crush feelings, she smiles slightly and they make their way inside the place.

And before she can process it there’s music everywhere. The endless stream of bass and guitar notes, the steady beat of the drum. The singer’s voice almost sounded blurry when there was so much to focus on, drowned on the melodies but melding with them oh so perfectly.

Maki can almost feel it. The energy of the song, blasting through her body, running through her blood as she raises her arms strongly along to the rhythm. She can’t help but smile, and even if the quirk of her lips is slight on her expressionless face, she still feels like she’s shining like a star in the middle of that rather small venue, strongly lit by that quirky, eye straining shade of purple.

But that wasn’t even the best part of tonight.

Kaede…oh god, Kaede. She was going to be the end of Maki. Her attention flashes back to the blonde for a second and the music stops. Guitar distortion fades into messy white noise.

Maki feels her body stop, all at once, except for her heart, that thumps against her chest. Kaede was sparkling, glowing, shining brighter than any star or sun human race could ever find out.

Her face is hot. There was something about it that made so, so many emotions swirl inside Maki like an overly sweet hot chocolate — Kaede’s beauty was usually a prim and proper one, but tonight it was completely different. She’d never looked brighter.

It was a messy, energetic kind of beautiful. Her blond hair was swaying all around along to the music and her smile lighting up the room more than the exaggerated purple lamps. Maki was certain Kaede had never really listened to that band, especially since they were sort of an underground, local thing, but she was dancing along like she’d listened to it over a billion times.

What song even was it? She couldn’t hear anything, not a single drum beat — So stupid, Maki lets out a sigh, and averts her eyes towards the band.

But the song is over. The vocalist yells at the crowd and they go wild, Kaede following them with excited cheers.

Short break. Next song about to start.

“Oh my god, why didn’t you introduce me to this band earlier?” Kaede rocks towards Maki, laughing and smiling and all breathless from her concert dancing. She grabs Maki’s arm all excited “I _love_ their sound! I’ve never seen a guitarist play with so much energy!”

“I’m…I’m glad you like them” Maki chokes on her words but quickly recovers, trying to set her mind on the music talk “I’ve seen them a couple times, they really are something else.” Her voice goes a tad soft by the end, the sort of softer tone she could only speak in when genuinely, truly happy.

“I hope they make it big someday” Kaede’s voice is dreamy “But I hope you and your band make it big too. Unless you don’t want it to, that is” She chuckles.

“I guess it wouldn’t be too bad. But you know it’s unlikely, Kaede” Maki plays into the joke, and she sort of hates it because she’s too blunt, too flat. But Kaede is still smiling sunnily, which is enough for her to backtrack with her thoughts in a second.

“Well, you know I’m already your biggest fan” She speaks. Maki is burning up, her face the same shade as her eyes and shirt.

Band comes back in. A ballad is announced.

No jumping and dancing around this time. Kaede watches them with unblinking eyes, face painted all over with pure, sincere awe. The crowd is swaying from side to side and the slower rhythm envelops them before the lyrics kick in — A love song.

“Oh, it’s so beautiful” The words escape Kaede. She’s enraptured by the music and Maki is enraptured by _her._

There’s something about that love song that makes Maki’s heart beat in a different way. A warm feeling spreads all over her chest, a calmer one.

Her hand meets Kaede’s. Who know who initiated it, but they both turn their eyes to each other. The pianist blinks, mouth agape.

But she doesn’t say anything. The purple lights dye her all over. She turns her face away, their fingers entwine, their hands squeeze.

The song takes the most beautiful eternity to be over.

.           .           .

The end of the show is chaotic. There’s people walking everywhere with no pattern at all, but Kaede and Maki make their way out of the venue hand in hand, careful not to lose each other.

“That was so amazing” Kaede breathes out the remark as soon as they leave through the back door, now skipping around in the rather empty parking lot “I really have no words to describe it. There’s just something special about seeing the local bands play — I’m so happy you introduced me to that! Their sound is so raw and emotional and…”

Maki keeps feeling herself blush as Kaede rambles adorably, and she can’t even contain the tiniest of smiles that spreads through her lips.

“I know about some other shows local bands are gonna play” She speaks, all too confident “I don’t know if you’d like those, though”

“I’m open to trying!” She chimes “I trust your judgement, besides, I’ll be glad to spend time with you again”

Kaede’s hands are holding Maki by her both her arms, they’re closer than normal friends would ever be—

And Kaede longingly looks up at the sky after not too long of quietness. The sky is the same murky blue. A bleak city sky, nothing besides darkness there.

“You know, I wish we could see the stars from here” The pianist’s voice is normally so bubbly and full of energy, but now it’s more quiet, sort of a whisper, only meant for Maki to hear “It’s such a shame we can’t properly see the sky from big cities, I’d love to stargaze with you someday”

Maki’s heart skips a beat, and she’s cherry red again. Kaede looks at her, face pinkish and smile bashful. It’s awkward, but it’s not bad. Maki averts her gaze into the ground, unable to keep looking into Kaede’s eyes, getting the feeling that she should say _something,_ but not just _anything…_

Ideas are going haywire in Maki’s brain. She remembers this one _thing,_ and…

“I know a place” She announces, and Kaede lights up, still flushed but with wider eyes. She can’t fuck this up, come on “It’s sort of, uh, shady and far away, in the transition from the town to the rural area. If you’d rather not it’s fine, but I…I can take you there, if you’re down”

“Yeah” Kaede mutters “I’m down.”

She gulps. For some reason, her usual assertiveness had seemed to fade away for this specific moment — That just happened a lot when she talked to Kaede, honestly — For the most important moment of the night, where Maki would take her longtime crush to stargaze at the edges of the city.

She can’t fuck this up.

Maki takes her keys from her pocket and they walk to her car. Her on the driver’s seat, Kaede on the passenger’s, they’re dead silent and don’t even dare to turn on the radio.

There’s some sort of melancholic beauty to watching the city grow smaller as she drives. How the pulsating skyscrapers shrink into tinier, dirtier buildings, then into run down houses.

She glances towards Kaede every now and then, just to see that the blonde has her eyes fixated on the window, probably watching the progress of the city melting into urban area ever so slowly.

Eyes on the road, Maki is just mostly praying she doesn’t fuck it up. By the time they reach a seemingly endless road surrounded by empty pastures, Maki knows there’s no turning back now.

“This is it” Softly, she says, and pulls over near a patch of grass that has a tree. When the car doors are opened, Kaede looks mildly hesitant, but then her eyes go wide.

“Maki….” The pianist breathes, and blinks at the sky “The stars…”

She can do nothing but thread her fingers through a twintail. Maki had been there a couple times, mostly when she wanted to run away from everything and everyone. It wasn’t a happy place for her, it was more of a hiding spot really.

But…the clear sight of the moon being reflected on Kaede’s crystalline eyes, with so many twinkling stars all around it…it might change the way she sees it.

“This reminds me of my grandma’s farm” Kaede is still smiling so wide, taking steps through the yellowing grass. Maki follows her dumbly, still one step or two behind her “I used to go there all the time when I was a kid, before I even had my first recital.”

“Glad you like this place” She mutters. God, her hands were shaking like she was holding a gun for the first time, but when Kaede turned to her, with her summertime smile, it all faded away.

Kaede laughs out loud, a sort of nostalgic happy sound. The finest notes Maki had ever heard.

“Thank you…so much for tonight” She says so sincerely, looking deep into Maki’s eyes “I mean it, everything has been so perfect and awesome. You really know how to treat a lady” The joke is peppered in like seasoning to her words.

“I do my best” Their hands brush against each other, and Kaede wraps hers around Maki’s wrists, kinda like how they were in the parking lot, but…this time, it felt more intimate “A-And, um, you don’t deserve anything less, really”

Kaede’s thumbs sort of rub gentle circles into Maki’s skin. She’s never wanted to kiss somebody so badly, she swore. But something was keeping her frozen, drilled into that stiff position.

“Is it okay if we sit on the hood of your car to stargaze?” The pianist asks, and there’s no way she could deny.

After the concert at the live house, Kaede and Maki sit down to watch a concert played by the stars — And as cheesy as that sounds, the silence of all of them together really was the prettiest song Maki had ever heard.


	8. track 8 - get the gang together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey!! im really sorry for my absence. i got very busy with my exams and just wasnt having a good time through most of april. i'll try to get back to my weekly update schedule, i hope i didnt disappoint everyone too much!  
> chapter song: get the gang together - gerard way

_I’m really glad we got to go out together, I really enjoyed myself. I’m looking forward to the next time :)_

“Umm, Maki, are you paying attention? I asked a question…”

“Ah—” She looks up from the phone, cheeks warm. She blinks. The three boys on Rantaro’s dining table intently stared at her, and she puts her phone down, averting their gazes “Yeah, what is it?”

“I asked what you thought about this design Ouma drew for us” Shuuichi, who was the one to call for her attention, passes her a sheet of paper. Ouma, clasping his hands together, smiles smugly as he watches “It’s just a sketch, but if you like it, we can put it on our band’s page”

Maki looks at the drawing. It’s actually pretty good. The words Trigger Happy Havoc are written in this sort of scratchy handwriting that gave her a graffiti vibe, and the o in “havoc” was a smiley face with the eyes crossed out.

“Thoughts?” Ouma asks, still smiling. Maki shrugs.

“I like it. It suits our aesthetic”

“Awesome!” The drummer cheers, clapping his hands together. She has to stifle a chuckle as she rolls her eyes “So, what else do we need for our pages?”

“Ah, let’s see” Rantaro picks up his phone, probably pulling up a list of some sorts “We have the logo basically ready, so all we need is to write descriptions and make a business email. Who’s doing it?”

“I volunteer!” Ouma chimes, and brings his energy drink can to his lips for a second, taking a sip before his declaration “I’m like, suuuper good with social media! I have over 20 thousand follows on Instagram”

“Just on your meme page” Saihara mumbles. Ouma slams the now empty can on the table.

“Irrelevant!” He proclaims “Now gimme that computer, you three have lyric stuff to do, and you know I’m illiterate so I’m no good at that”

Maki just looks as Ouma snatches the laptop away, getting up from the table to go sit on the sofa. Rantaro is chuckling and Saihara seems to smile, Maki wonders if she should let him drink that much Monster the next time they get together for practice.

They had been on this routine for a little while. About two weeks ago, The legendary Trigger Happy Havoc group chat came to existence soon after Maki had a chat with Rantaro to catch up about band decisions. And just like that, they all got their few braincells to work for a bit so they could put together a practice schedule.

Obviously, it wasn’t a very easy thing to think of, considering everyone’s own personal schedule. Maki worked 9 to 5 on every weekday but had weekends free. Shuuichi worked from 1 to 9 pm every other day, and had busy weekends every now and then. Ouma’s schedule was an unpredictable mess, but he was completely free on Thursdays and weekends. And Rantaro was pretty much always free, since he was self-employed. In the end, they settled for practicing three times a week, on Thursday and weekend nights. Location was moved to Rantaro’s garage, too, to optimize comfort for the most high-energy players (Read: Shuuichi, who as shy as he was, couldn’t stand fucking still when he had his bass guitar on his arms. Which is good, really)

And since then, they had been playing covers together in hopes to improve. All following Maki’s lead, which meant long, long hours of work, but lots of results. And also a couple bruises and a sore throat from singing a bit too loud that one time.

“Okay, we need original content if we want to get any gigs” Rantaro starts, and his green eyes do a sharp trail to Shuuichi, gaze fixated on him “So, Saihara, what lyrics do you have for us?”

“Oh, um” He stumbles, straightening out a small pile of papers he had resting on the table, right next to himself “It’s…nothing much, really. Just revamped some old poems, I don’t have many ideas for the…actual music, though.”

“Me and Rantaro can deal with that” Maki replies, getting ahold of the papers. She carefully reads through his stilted handwriting.

Shuuichi is fiddling with the fabric of his fingerless gloves, anxiously waiting for the feedback.

The lyrics flow well. A couple words catch her eye, she can vaguely tell which spots would deserve heavier melodies and between what she should stick a guitar solo. It’s good, she thinks. Really good. The titles are nice, but…

“This _Runaway_ one” She points out to the last song “Is that a love song or a metaphor for something?”

“A-Ah,” And just like that, Shuuichi turns cherry red. Before he even says anything, Maki’s pretty sure she knows the answer already “W-Well, it depends on how you wanna see it, I guess…” He stutters out “What do you think about them? T-The songs, I mean?”

“Really good” Is all she can say. Some sentences from _Runaway_ are sinking in now, and she can’t help but  be reminded of— “The imagery is…on point.”

Shuuichi musters a shy smile “Thanks” He politely says “I have some others at home, I could bring them next time if you want?”

“You definitely should” Rantaro, who is reading the lyrics now, nods as he says “This is amazing, Shuuichi, you should be more proud of yourself!”

The bassist chuckles, all flustered.

Maki’s mind is set on one specific event. One from two weeks or so ago. One that she shared with someone special. Actually, she’s thinking about this one person more than the actual event, so—

“Shuuichi” She starts “If you don’t mind, I think I have an idea for some new lyrics for you”

.           .           .

The clock ticks. One more week goes by.

Work at the daycare gets rougher for that time, for some reason. The kids are strangely rowdy, like the energy of the place has changed. For the entirety of the week, Kaito seems to not shut the fuck up.

Needless to say, Maki is stressed to hell and back. More than five times, she has to restrain herself from kicking the man on the shin and then throat-punching her boss.

The one thing that keeps her afloat is Kaede. God, Maki misses her. They text all the time, exchanging jokes and stories from work as the days go by, but Kaede doesn’t come see her even once.

_“I have an audition in a month”_ The blonde explains, in that one night where they call. And Maki understands, she swears she does, and she really tries to not be too emotional, but…

Kaede. Just…Kaede. Holding her hands and stargazing with her and watching her get hyped up at the show and wanting to kiss her so badly it _aches._ It doesn’t leave Maki’s mind for even a second.

“You’re lovesick” Rantaro teases her every time they hang out, because of course Maki mentions Kaede every time, and she wants to put out her cigarette on his cheek.

But she can’t deny he’s right.

Meanwhile, Trigger Happy Havoc becomes the main thing Maki puts effort on. She manages everything as well as she could, doing her very best to lead their rehearsals, making sure everyone is in sync.

Ouma gets their webpages up in little time. He draws the logo, fills in the descriptions, and before everyone knows it, they’re promoting it everywhere. Rantaro posts about it, Maki posts about it, Ouma posts about it. Followers come in.

An audience. A group of people expecting something from them. Maki can’t help but grit her teeth every time she’s reminded of it.

It’s weirder to deal with than she expected, really. Her goal is still to catch Kaede’s attention with it, yes, but…

She really didn’t…think this through very well. The path between forming the band and getting a good gig to impress her crush was longer than she expected and even then—

…Maki still can’t admit she’s gotten into it.

Whatever. Either way, overwhelmed by expectation from others, that’s how Maki finds herself in a shitty diner with Kokichi Ouma of all people, talking business at three in the fucking morning.

“Okay, first of all, we need to finish up our demo” Is the first thing he offers when Maki asks him about how would be the best way to get gigs “If we start contacting places like, bars and local festivals and such, we need to give them a taste of our content.”

She nods attentively. Ouma was obnoxious and annoying, but out of the four of them, he was the one who had the most experiences with being in long term bands, so…

“I’m thinking, we finish the demo, post the recordings on YouTube or something, and then announce it on the pages. People are going to listen to it and we’ll get some more attention. Then we start looking for places to play at, and I’m pretty sure at least some shitty bar’s gonna accept us. Easy peasy!” He grins brightly, and props up his feet on the table, earning a dirty look from a waitress.

“Yeah, no. We need good recordings and that’s gonna take some effort” She cuts him off, gesturing around “Plus Shuuichi is still rewriting some lyrics, and Rantaro still hasn’t thought of his part for Ringleaders.”

“But we’ve finished One Track Mind, haven’t you?”

Maki stops. Ouma’s eyes are upon her, watching, narrowed. She can tell he’s suspicious of something. She can always tell when people are like that.

One Track Mind…that was the song she’d written with Shuuichi, the idea she had when they met up exactly one week ago. They got the lyrics ready in little time, with Maki giving Shuuichi some story and imagery suggestions, and him working his magic, but…

Alright, in all honesty, that song was her love letter for Kaede. The lyrics were written by someone else, yes, but the idea was hers, and she’d put so much thought into those guitar parts. It was the song she wanted to show her on the supposed show she’s been daydreaming of. The one where she played for Kaede.

She bites her lip. She didn’t…want to play this at her first gig with Trigger Happy. Cheesy as it was, she had already planned for it to be her love confession, but…

“Helloooo? Earth to Harumaki?” Ouma asks, voice all mirthful “You’re really quiet, did I…strike a chord here?”

The drummer lifts up his glass from the table, and slurps on his milkshake in the most bitchy, obnoxious loud way. And that’s how she remembers why she fucking hates him.

“Keep this up and I’m gonna strangle you” She says, in the blankest voice she can muster “It’s nothing like that, I just don’t think something like One Track Mind should be our first song to be released—”

“Why not?” He leaves the milkshake, and throws his arms around in a dramatic shrug “I think it’s a good way for us to start out! It’s extra as all hell and that’s what we need to make our break into the music world, don’tcha agree?”

“Couldn’t we finish up Ringleaders first?” She grits her teeth “All we need is for Shuuichi to finish his part, I think it’s a better way to start out”

“But One Track Mind is already finished” Ouma points out, and she shuts her mouth “Come onnn, Harumaki, just spit it out, why don’t you wanna debut with that song?”

“I just think it’s—”

Again, she cuts herself off. This time, its because her phone starts ringing, vibrating quickly against the diner table.

“Just hold on a second”

She picks it up, and sees Kaede’s name in all its glory on the screen, followed up by the stupid heart emojis she added on her contact name. Her mouth is agape. Ouma is watching.

“Hello, Kaede?” She picks it up. It’s late, Kaede should be asleep. She wonders… “Why are you calling me so late? Is everything okay?”

“Hi, Maki!” The pianist chirps. Maki’s heart does a cartwheel “Everything’s good! I just stayed up late practicing for the audition, haha…”

“You know that’s not good for you” She says, trying to keep her voice low but unable to contain the concern “It’s good that you’re working hard, but you still need to take care of yourself…”

“I am! I just got a little too distracted today. But I’ll go to bed soon” She assures. Maki sighs.

“Alright, alright. Just try not to do this again, okay? Maybe set a timer on your phone so you don’t get distracted” She fiddles with a lock of hair from her twintails “Anyway, why were you calling?”

“Ah, well, you know how you told me your band was gonna look for gigs, right?” She starts out “Well, I’ve been looking, and…”

_“MAKI AND KAEDE SITTING IN A TREE, K-I-S-S-I—”_

“Ouma, shut the fuck up” She growls, hand over the phone so Kaede couldn’t heart what was said, and the short boy is promptly smacked on the head, bursting into a fit of giggles “S-Sorry, what were you saying?”

“Um, are you with someone? I heard a voice there, but I couldn’t understand what—”

“It’s just Ouma, we were going over band stuff” She stumbles through her response, shaking her head. The drummer is still laughing “And it’s better if you didn’t understand. What were you saying?”

“Oh, that’s alright” There’s a short pause. It sounds like Kaede’s hesitating to say something, but maybe Maki’s racing heart was making her go stupid, so she could be wrong “Well, I was just wondering, have you ever heard of a band called Hot Pink Homicide?”  



	9. track 9 - headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter song: headfirst slide into cooperstown on a bad bet - fall out boy  
> if you dont like folie a deux you have no rights

And, as it turns out, Hot Pink Homicide is a punk girl band from a neighboring city, formed a little over two years ago by Tenko Chabashira and her long time girlfriend Himiko Yumeno.

On the next morning (Or rather, just a couple hours after her late night snack with Kokichi Ouma on the shitty diner down the road) she’s on her couch with the purple bastard, sipping energy drinks and staring at the webpage for the band.

Chabashira was the band’s lead singer, though she also had some experience on playing the drums. Himiko was the rhythm guitarist and lyricist along with drummer Angie Yonaga. Their lead guitarist was Miu Iruma, a name Maki swore she’d heard somewhere, and they were currently looking for a permanent bassist after their previous one had quit.

She nods when reading through the members page, eyes unfocused with sleep deprivation. Apparently, they had just dropped their first album after a rather successful EP, and were looking to play live with newer local bands in some weird shady clubs.

_“I think Shuuichi knows their temporary bassist, so if you need to get him to pull some strings for you!”_ Kaede cheerfully announced through the phone call _“It’s on the night right before my audition, so I might not be able to get there on time to watch you, but I think working with other bands could be an awesome start for you guys!”_

“So, are we taking the gig or not?” Ouma pops up from behind her, energy drink on hand, looking like he had a full 8 hours of sleep when he’d spent the entire night brainstorming music stuff with Maki “From what your little girlfriend said it’s an easy one, we could get some awesome exposure from it” He smirks, waving the hand that wasn’t holding the can around, showing off his stupid multicolored nail polish.

“I’m researching HPH first, I’ve never heard of them before” She replies blandly “Wanna make sure we don’t do a collab with a bunch of freaks. The punk scene is full of assholes currently”

Ouma chuckles, amused “Tell me about it. Drummers get to work with a lot of bands and trust me, I’ve seen some shit” He stares at the page, and all of a sudden his eyes go bright “Oh, I know Angie! We used to be friends before”

“Didn’t knew rats could make friends” The joke is stupid but Maki is too tired to think it through, and Ouma still laughs, so it doesn’t matter “Are you even graduated from college? You look like a middle schooler”

“Hey, that’s rude! Of course I am!” He whines, finishes the energy drink in one go and tosses the can aside, crossing his arms “I’m gonna be 24 this June, actually! I’m the oldest one in this band!”

“You’re gonna be _what?”_

“You heard me! You guys are all babies compared to me!” He giggles “Except for Shumai, he’s also 23 but a couple months younger than me. Anyway, you and Amami are infants”

“Fucking unbelievable” Maki grits out, shaking her head. She’s reluctant to even internally admit her conversation with Ouma was being relatively amusing “Wait, what did you call Shuuichi?”

Ouma goes quiet.

“What? I don’t— I just said Shuuichi!” The crack on his voice is about as subtle as a baseball bat smashing a window. Maki turns her head in his direction, one eyebrow raised. The faintest glow of pink is on Ouma’s face and it’s such a tiny detail but to a trained skeptic like Maki it looks like he’s been dyed with lies all over “I’m not lying!”

“You have a crush on him!” She teases, the faintest of smirks on her lips. Ouma keeps shaking his head so quickly he seems like a wet dog “You do! Ouma has a crush on Shuuichi!”

“I don’t!” His face goes a noticeable shade of red “Geez, Harumaki, and I thought you were the straight man of our band!”

“If there’s one thing I’m not is straight, so jot that down” She states, going back to scrolling through HPH’s page, but not really paying attention to it.

Normally she’d be nervous saying something like this, but knowing — Well, just deducing, but he was so goddamn obvious to her, despite being shady and mysterious to literally everyone else — that Ouma had a crush on Saihara established some sort of solidarity there.

“Oh, that I know. You’re head over heels for Kaede and it _shows_ ” He replies, all sing-songy, and she rolls her eyes, face flushing “That’s good though, because I’m gay and there’s no way in hell that I’m playing in a band fronted by a straightie. Yuck!”

“Tell me about it” She can’t help but chuckle “Some straight people are just…ugh. I remember once I was at a club wearing my lesbian pride shirt and despite that this creepy guy kept hitting on me. Like, take a fucking hint. He tried to feel me up on the dancefloor and punched him on the face”

“Gay fucking rights” Ouma simply says, inbetween small laughs.

“Yeah,” She nods, still smiling subtly, still with her eyes on the computer “Hey, call Shuuichi and Rantaro, we need to sort out some stuff.”

.           .           .

The trip to Rantaro’s place is short. Ouma calls him to warn about him and Maki coming over to work on band stuff, and to both his and Maki’s surprise, he’s wide awake.

He passes Maki the cellphone when she’s driving, and on a brief exchange of words, she finds out he was with Shuuichi at his place. For a second she thinks of making a joke about them hooking up, but the bassist pops up at the phone and explains they’d been working on riffs and lyrics all night.

She parks the car. She enters Rantaro’s penthouse. They practice, write shit, and make demo recordings of some songs.

They joke around all too much and waste soda and snacks. They comment on each other’s playing and talk shit about how every one looks sweaty and gross after jumping around for so long.

When she’s back at her car, her hands aching dully and shaking from excessive caffeine and sugar, she has to stop to stare at the street lights for a second.

Her eyes sting but it doesn’t matter. She’s dazed from exhaustion but she feels real. There’s a weird feeling stirring inside of her, warm and confusing and a flurry of other emotions she’d known to repress all those years.

_Trigger Happy Havoc is real —_ is a strange string of words to run through her mind as she drives home. It’s a vague sentence, but it makes sense now. Too much sense, she’d say.

On the back of her mind she sees the email they wrote together for Hot Pink Homicide, attaching links to some of their demos posted online. And with all of that mixing up, she truly, fully comes to terms with the fact that her stupid plan to impress Kaede had grown into something much bigger.

A new passion. Something to look forward to.

She’d fallen for this band like she’d fallen for Kaede.

.           .           .

 The preparation to meet HPH had been a weird one. Maki would never say it out loud, but…they were so _small_ compared to them. Trigger Happy was barely a band, they were more of a bad idea dressed up in early 2000s emo attire.

At least, that’s what she told herself when straightening out her skirt in her bathroom, tentatively looking at her reflection on the mirror. She had on a simple tank top and pleated skirt, both in black, and a dark red flanell worn like an open jacket, sleeves rolled up. Legs carefully covered up by black pantyhose and simple combat boots on. No accessories — No fingerless gloves or fishnets or studs in sight. She wanted to look somewhat put together and professional while still retaining her usual style. She briefly touches the space buns Rantaro put her hair up in, and with a sigh, exits the bathroom.

She forgets all rooms in his penthouse are soundproofed, being reminded of it the second her door is unlocked, by a sharp squeal from Shuuichi.

“What are we gonna _do,”_ His voice was impressive, really. Maki doesn’t think that even her, the band’s lead singer, could go three whole octaves higher so quickly “This can’t go well, they’re a much bigger band than us, we’re gonna flunk this and it’ll get us a terrible reputation”

“Good, good, let it all out” Rantaro patted him on the back. Out of everyone here, he looked the best. Maki was jealous about how well Rantaro could pull off those weird flashy tops from the women’s section of his favorite department store, despite his build “Oh, hey Maki. I see you’ve finished getting dressed.”

“I have” She merely nods “Is Shuuichi like…okay?” Her question is a bit of a mutter, kinda rhetorical. Shuuichi did not look okay in the slightest. But then again, he was always sort of a mess, she had noted.

Messy eye makeup, messy hair barely covering his left eye, always wearing pretty much the same clothes. This time, though, his fringe was a disaster from grabbing handfuls of his hair.

“He had some concerns about meeting HPH” Rantaro shrugs like he’s used to it, and maybe he is “I convinced him to just talk about it to let the feelings out.”

“Did you offer him a join too?”

“He did and I said no, there’s no way I’m _getting high_ before we do something important like _that”_ Shuuichi speaks, franticness still all over his voice. He takes a deep breath afterwards, Rantaro still patting his back “I just…I’m really not sure about this. I don’t think it’s gonna go well…”

“Hey, it’s not a big deal!” Ouma’s bright voice comes up from behind Maki as he reveals himself, hair up in a ponytail, purple shirt and ripped black jeans on. Seeing his lack of ridiculous bracelets, she could tell he was trying to look more put together, too. And she appreciated it, really “Shuuichi, Hot Pink Homicide isn’t that big of a band, y’know? If they refuse to play with us it’s fine, we don’t have much of a following yet, and we have time to try and do better. It’s okay if this doesn’t go well, it won’t be our only opportunity.”

Ouma’s voice is as playful as ever. If it was anyone else, Maki would think he said all of these things as a joke. But the room was silent, and for the briefest second, Shuuichi seems to relax, releasing a sigh. She blinks curiously at that.

“God. Okay.” He speaks, shaking his head. Rantaro’s hand is removed from his back “Alright” He repeats “I’m just going to…fix my eyeliner in the bathroom then.”

“You’re gonna look like a snack” Ouma snickers, and the bassist rolls his eyes, a slight smile on his lips as he walks away.

Maki makes a mental note of the moment, filing away to think it through later. One could say that Ouma and Shuuichi’s relationship was…odd.

.           .           .

The drive was, to say the least, ominous. Maki on the wheel, Rantaro by her side, Ouma and Shuuichi behind them. No one talks a whole lot, but Ouma points out things he sees on the road and makes jokes every now and then, receiving mostly just chuckles from Shuuichi.

Tension kept hanging on the air. It was stupid, really, but this was their first time meeting a bigger band. HPH’s following was mostly local and they had toured maybe one time, but at this moment, they seemed larger than life on their baby post-hardcore band eyes.

When Maki parks her car nearby the place the address on the emails led her to, she’s a little weirded out. It said restaurant on the message, but it seemed more like a bar. They hesitantly enter the place.

Immediately, a figure with all too shiny blue hair up in a ponytail meets them.

“Hello there!” Her voice is high, without much of a recognizable timbre. Round glasses frame her eyes. Her clothing seemed mostly business casual, besides the suspenders catching her belt. Maki would guess she’s the place’s owner, or maybe a manager, but the restaurant was empty and seemed inactive tonight “You’re here for the band meeting, yeah?”

“Yes” She answers “I’m Maki Harukawa from Trigger Happy Havoc, behind me are my bandmates. We’re here to meet Hot Pink Homicide?”

“Oh, I’m Tsumugi Shirogane!” She introduces herself, reaching out to politely shake Maki’s hand “I’m the owner of this place with my girlfriend, and also the temporary bassist for HPH! I’ll lead you guys to the table—“

“Tsumugi?” Shuuichi’s voice cracks a bit, and he’s got a somewhat awkward, but pleasantly surprised smile on his face “Ah, it’s been so long! You hair looks really different…”

Tsumugi, however, looks confused “Do I know you?”

“It’s Saihara? F-From high school?” He stutters “You remember me, right? We learned bass together”

“Oh, Shuuichi!” Her face lights up and she stops walking them around the restaurant, rushing to the shorter boy for a hug “Oh my god, it’s been so long! Where have you been?”

“College, mostly” He chuckles, feebly hugging back.

“We have to get this meeting over with, but when we’re done, you _need_ to stay over for a drink. We gotta catch up!” She smiles and resumes leading them to the table “The place is actually closed tonight since it’s Kirumi’s day off, but I can make you a nice cocktail”

Ouma eyes Tsumugi strangely.

Soon, they’re at a table — The largest one in the restaurant, shaped like a long rectangle with four chairs on each side, one of which was empty. On the side opposite to this one, was Hot Pink Homicide.

Maki doesn’t know how her bandmates felt about it, but for some reason, the second her eyes met the other band, her worries completely melted away.

The four girls there looked fairly flashy. From left to right, were a pale haired girl with dark skin and bright curious eyes, a small expressionless redhead wearing a black vest and dress shirt, a girl with strange long twintails and a neon pink top covered in pride pins, and a cynical bleached blonde wearing a mesh shirt over a black bra.

From left to right, Angie, Himiko, Tenko, and Miu, Maki recognized. Tsumugi pulls up a chair to the table’s empty right side and sits down, smiling sweetly.

 “Oh my god, Maki! It’s such a pleasure to meet you!” Tenko starts, voice as cheery as it sounded in her songs. She shakes Maki’s (And only Maki’s) hand “I really loved your demos! I’m so excited to work with you!”

“Thank you” She chokes out the reply, impressed by her enthusiasm. Her hands are neatly folded on her lap when she finally takes a seat “We’ve listened to your album, too. It’s really amazing”

“That means a lot, thank you so much!” She’s genuinely bewildered at how sweet and polite, if only a little strange, Tenko was. She sort of expected a much different person.

“Can we just go straight to the fuckin’ point” Miu says “I don’t have time to chitchat”

“Nyeh, I thought you weren’t doing anything tonight? Didn’t you get stood up by that guy on the bar?” Himiko’s quiet voice remarks.

“Shut up” Miu mutters sourly “Don’t remind me of that”

“Anyways!” Tenko interjects, candy-sweet smile still on her face “You wanted to apply for our upcoming event, right? How did you find out about us?”

“Maki’s friend told her about it” Rantaro is the one to answer “We were searching for gigs, and she recommended to talk to you guys because of the local show you were doing”

“Hey, don’t interrupt Maki, I asked _her_ the question” Tenko’s eyes narrow bitterly. Rantaro’s mouth is shut in a second “Anyway, we’re totally willing to work with you, Maki! We just got back from our first tour, and we wanted to do something with the locals before leaving for the second! You got lucky, we just had one spot left on our show lineup.”

“Is that so…” Maki blinks “Do we have to…audition, or something like that?”

“Sort of” Himiko shrugs “We gotta rehearse together to build up chemistry and make sure you guys aren’t total freaks. If we don’t like you, you’re kicked out. It’s serious business.”

Tenko giggles at the smaller girl. Maki vaguely hears her mumble something along the lines of _“You’re so cute when you’re serious”_ and watches her wrap an arm around the guitarist. It stirs something inside of Maki, oddly enough.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty much it.” Tenko speaks, eyes still on her girlfriend, who leans into her touch “We liked all of your demos a lot, we just want to schedule rehearsals and discuss show business tonight, if that’s okay!”

Maki nods. Opening her mouth to speak up, the words end up not leaving her when she feels a vibration against her thigh.

“Just a second” She mutters, and then picks up her phone from her skirt’s pocket.

On the screen, Kaede’s name. She stops for a second, almost biting her lip. Tenko’s eyes are upon her.

She stares at the phone for a brief second, and presses the red button delicately, as if apologizing to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no excuse for taking a month to update i started this chapter on may 1st and then forgot time was a thing. i give up on having a consistent schedule. also if you notice the characters' personalities are a bit ooc thats on purpose i hate kodaka's writing for them and i'm killing him with my bare hands as you read this

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading if you got this far! if u like it please leave a comment if u can! feel free to suggest things and ask questions too!


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